For the first few years through the development, implementation, and the rising popularity of Salesforce, this CRM application platform was all about “what a user can do with it?” But now the application platform is all about what processes you can use with Salesforce. If truth be told, the attention has shifted all around the world, and a higher number of users are concentrating efforts to find out more about the capabilities of the CRM.
Is there a methodology for the implementation?
No, there isn’t a strict protocol that you need to adhere to while developing your processes. Still, most of the Salesforce account managers, as well as development teams, will tell you that having a strategic vision helps in the long run, and in general, it is a great practice. However, it is essential to look at the best practices as a methodology for doing CRM development, since it considers the interface, format, and the latest from the world of marketing and source control.
In the following section of the post, we have gone over a select few of the Salesforce development best practices. This CRM platform has successfully helped businesses of all sizes to streamline their processes. We encourage you to read through and look at the ideas as a set of guidelines and philosophies to continue with your development. Read on to know more.
Source driven development
The concept of source driven development plays a huge role as far as the best practices are concerned. The source control or version control is the first rule of Salesforce. However, the platform doesn’t provide you any source control and instead expects users to implement using third-party applications. This brings us to the next point.
Git
This is the leading tool as far as source control is concerned and is an industry-standard. The tool is highly used in Salesforce and a few other hosted solutions specific.
Why invest in source control?
Source control is an extremely crucial concept. It is valuable to every firm since it offers insights regarding the audit trails, allows the flexibility to rollback changes, and improves employee collaboration. Keep in mind that accidental deletion of the entire development module can take place through a different user, and having source control is a fail-safe that allows you to fix such costly errors. If you don’t possess source control, then the best improvement that you can make to your development process is to implement this as soon as possible.
About continuous integration
CI is a vast and elaborate topic and is highly debated among professionals. If truth be told, CI is essential as this allows you to integrate and merge codes from developer branches into the master branch. This allows for frequent bug fixes and faster deployment of any code. However, with CI, CD, or Continuous Delivery is another aspect that you should never neglect. Here, new features are fast-tracked and delivered soon after testing. Together, CI and CD are considered DevOps. Keep in mind that DevOps allows you to run your operations smoothly. Once you have decided on daily or weekly releases, code integration will automatically make your processes snag-proof and error-free.
Best practices with Salesforce sandboxes
If you invest in CI and CD, you will need to rethink your strategy regarding the Salesforce sandboxes as well. Most of the leading companies usually allow every developer to have access to their personal sandbox. Sandboxes are of two major types; full copy or partial copy, and both enables the merger of code and features as they are developed. You can use an optional UAT sandbox for running and testing the code. Sandbox implementation and management are incredibly critical and vita; maneuvers when you are looking to streamline your business processes and personnel interactions.
Rollback, SOX features, and audit trails
The ability to rollback newly implemented features and audits the code is a vital component of any CRM platform. This extra feature is highly sought after and significant in several scenarios. Issues and bugs are quite common in the development stage, and often these problems are noted once the end-users complain.
This is where the rollback of features comes in handy. It is also true if your company is public and is required to implement and run a SOX compliance. The ability to audit changes is a master plan as it makes for a secure and continually running platform that is reliable and sturdy. Keep in mind that for SOX compliance, you will additionally require the version control as well. Usually, in such a set-up, the code is reviewed and deployed by a third party other than the developer.
Automated testing
The CI/CD pipeline gives way to the test automation feature. Manually testing code is a time-consuming affair. This means that you can only implement and merge codes once a week. To avoid downtime and slow merging for maintenance and bug-fixes, automated testing is crucial. This allows for testing and verification of the code in minutes. Test automation is worth the money invested, and most of the successful firms have put in surprising amounts of resources in it. You can use several tools for testing codes.
About Integrated Development Environment
Lastly, the choice of the IDE is the first place where developers spend their energy and time. This alone makes IDE worth investing. IDE work-systems are usually paid services, and there are a few significant players in the Salesforce system. There are few open-sourced and free systems as well, but the paid services offer several vital features. All this might seem overwhelming and a lot to learn about, but these are the main topics to focus on for an IT professional or Salesforce team leader. The best practices are often the ones that allow for the best work, quickly, safely, and efficiently. If you invest in all the practices listed above, your team will surely deliver the target software faster than ever before without compromising on the quality and the reliability of the build.